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TURKEY OFFERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS GLOBAL MARKETS VIA FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) enable boosting trade and social relationships between two or more countries. Reducing duty expenses and trade barriers, they help address behind-the-border barriers, encourage investment, and improve the rules affecting issues such as intellectual property, e-commerce, and government procurement.
MOHAWK GROUP PROVIDES CARPET TO LEARNING SPACES Each year, Mohawk Group partners with Georgia United Credit Union Foundation to “crash” deserving schools all over the state. Faculty and administration across Georgia apply for facility makeovers based on specific needs that would enhance their respective curriculum and campus. One winner receives a school makeover grant funded by the foundation and runner-up schools receive grants for specific projects. Earlier in the summer, donations of carpet tile and adhesive were dispatched on the Mohawk fleet for School Crashers to refresh media centers at Avondale Elementary School in Avondale Estates and Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. Additionally, Mohawk Group helped make a new sensory room a reality at New Hope Middle School, which sits just down the street from some of its manufacturing facilities in Dalton as the closest school crash to date.
nated area where these students can relax to calm and refocus themselves as they return to in-person instruction later this month. “Georgia United is committed to improving the quality of life for children and families in our communities,” said Debbie Smith, president and CEO. “The School Crashers program is now in its seventh year and has provided 50 school makeovers totaling more than $1.5 million in improvements. School Crashers unites the community, donor partners like Mohawk and volunteers with the goal of providing inspiring learning and play spaces for the students, at no cost to the school.”
The donation of carpet allowed the school to reallocate some of the budget to use on other items to fill and further build out the sensory room. In addition to providing the carpet, Mohawk also supplied some of its own “In these uncertain times, budget cuts and volunteers who, while undertaking certain whatever else our future may possibly hold, precautions, helped install flooring, paint, a winning grant and the donation of carpet is put together furniture and set up each of the so wonderful,” said Cami Baldivid, the New rooms. Hope Middle School teacher who submitted the award-winning application. “Our teachers of ex- Four additional public schools across metroceptional students and paraprofessionals are politan Atlanta and middle Georgia were the ecstatic about using this room with our students deserving recipients of School Crashers program grants with the addition and makeover to meet their daily needs and challenges.” of playgrounds and outdoor classrooms. The school used the $20,000 award to establish an inspiring and engaging environment “We look forward to this partnership every specifically set aside for a population of nearly year because we understand the impact of 30 students that have diverse academic needs environment on the educational experience,” that range from autism, intellectual disorders, said David Dembowitz, senior vice president physical impairments, visual impairments and of education and government for Mohawk Group. “By improving the look and feel of oppositional defiant disorders. spaces at three schools this year, we know Floor-to-ceiling upgrades have breathed new this will also improve their student experilife into a formerly unused and outdated com- ence and create pride, which studies show puter lab. The safe space will provide a desig- lead to higher test scores and better grades.”
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Involved in EU Customs Union since 1996, Turkey has been implementing its trade policy following the EU’s Common Commercial Policy and has FTAs in force with 20 countries now, which are the EFTA countries, Israel, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia, Chile, Mauritius, South Korea, Malaysia, Moldova, Faroe Islands, and Singapore. Besides, Turkey has started or been conducting negotiations with countries including Lebanon, Kosovo, Sudan, Qatar, Venezuela, Japan, Ukraine, Peru, Indonesia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Thailand, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Cameroon, Chad, Seychelles, Gulf Cooperation Council, Libya, the MERCOSUR countries, USA, Canada, India, Vietnam, Central American countries, other ACP countries, Algeria, and South Africa. Free trade activities in Turkey offer numerous advantages, which are: - Free access to markets that foreign investors in Turkey may not reach before - Reducing of income tax from 33% to 20% and tax benefits/incentives in Technology Development Zones, - Industrial Zones, and Free Zones which could result in total or partial exemption from Corporate Income - Tax, a grant on employer’s social security share, as well as land allocation - Turkey’s FTA partners with a share of 9.5% in export markets and a share of 4.5% in Turkey’s imports with a trade surplus of 3.9 billion dollars - Turkey as a desirable country for foreign investors for production and exportation, a production base for electronics, nutriment, chemistry, durable consumer goods with its advantageous location and easy access to its neighbor countries via land transportation - Qualities of improving efficiency and innovation, driving competitiveness and promoting fairness
September 2020 ]
